How much should a parma cost?
What a chicken parma costs in Australia
The median price of a chicken parma across every pub menu MenuMap holds, broken down by state — counted from real menus, not estimated.
The median chicken parma in Australia costs $25.90. That is the middle of 650 priced parmas on the menus of 480 venues — not a survey, and not an estimate.
Half of all parmas fall between $20 and $30. If you are paying inside that band you are paying what most of the country pays; outside it, you are either at a pub that is subsidising the beer or at one that has put a parma on a restaurant menu.
What a parma costs in each state
The gap between the dearest and cheapest state is $2.10 — smaller than the argument about it usually implies.
| State | Median | Venues | Priced parmas |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | $26 | 111 | 120 |
| Queensland | $26 | 51 | 58 |
| Western Australia | $26 | 38 | 49 |
| Victoria | $25 | 234 | 351 |
| South Australia | $23.90 | 24 | 45 |
Parma or schnitzel?
The same kitchen usually sells both, and the parma is the dearer of the two: $25.90 against $20.50 for a schnitzel, measured across 593 venues. The $5.40 difference is essentially the ham, the napoli and the cheese.
How this was measured
Every priced menu row MenuMap holds whose name or section names a parma, parmi or parmigiana, excluding prosciutto di Parma — which is a place, not a dish, and appears on antipasto boards at three times the price.
The figure quoted is the median, not the average. Restaurant menus have a long tail of share platters and add-ons that would drag an average upwards while telling you nothing about what you will pay for dinner. Rows priced below 40% or above 250% of the median are excluded for the same reason — under a “Chicken Parmi” heading, a $4.00 row is the option to add ham, not a parma.
Recomputed from the latest catalogue export. Menu prices change more often than any catalogue can track, so treat this as what menus said, not as a quote.